China landslide toll rises to 46

A desperate search for three people missing in a landslide in south-western China ended on Saturday when their bodies were pulled from the mud, taking the final death toll to 46 - many of them children.

Authorities in Yunnan province said that the last three bodies were recovered on Saturday morning after a night of searching by more than 1000 rescue workers.

Xinhua news agency said those buried included 27 adults and 19 children.

Two other people were hospitalised after the landslide struck on Friday morning, engulfing 16 homes, Xinhua said.

Rescuers toiled into the night, braving bitter wind and freezing temperatures, using lamps and specialised detection devices in the hope of locating the missing.

Resident Li Yongju, 50, said she heard the crash of the landslide while cleaning her yard and rushed with other villagers to the disaster site with shovels and hoes.

Hundreds of thousands of messages of support had been posted on micro-blogging site Sina Weibo.

"Pray for those who remain missing in the debris. Life is too fragile. We only wish miracles can happen!" read one post.

"It is a tragedy, a real tragedy!" wrote another on Sohu.com.

Photos on Yunnan Web, run by the Yunnan provincial government, showed rescuers in orange uniforms digging into wide swathes of mud against a backdrop of snow-covered, terraced hills.

Xinhua said that the landslide had been triggered by 10 days of non-stop rain and snow, according to initial geologists' reports.

The area has experienced unusually low temperatures in recent weeks during what authorities have called China's coldest winter in 28 years.

Yunnan's mountainous areas are prone to landslides and earthquakes. Two quakes in September - one of magnitude 5.7 - left 81 dead and hundreds injured.

An earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province in 2008 claimed around 70,000 lives - the worst natural disaster to hit China in three decades, with shoddy buildings blamed for the high toll.